Hope Fertility & IVF Clinic officially opened

Deputy Prime Minister Chris Fearne and Enterprise Minister Miriam Dalli were the guests of honour at the official opening of the Hope Fertility & IVF Clinic in Mrieħel. They were welcomed by clinic director Dr Aytuğ Kolankaya and his team, apart from the directors.

In his address, Dr Fearne congratulated the investors and said: “We strive to work with the private sector where there are sectors and areas where we can collaborate and where we can complement each other.” The Hope Fertility & IVF Clinic is “of the highest standards, with stateof-the-art equipment and with very well-trained staff”.

He added: “Up to the last spate of legislation, we have been used to a number of Maltese patients going abroad to get IVF treatment. Now, with clinics such as Hope, we are in a situation where patients can come to Malta to have their treatment.”

Dr Dalli said: “Hope Clinic is one of the latest additions to the Life Sciences sector on the island, a highly vibrant and technologically advanced economic niche. Now, with an investment of just over €1m, Hope has turned this space into a state-of-the-art facility, providing technology which is very limitedly found in Europe.

“We have no doubt that, through the hard work and international exposure of the team behind this project, Hope is set to support more Maltese and Gozitan families, while also attracting European and international clients with competitive pricing.”

Dr Kolankaya said: “This project started on a Christmas morning in 2017 when we shared a dream with Charles Scerri. Fast forward five years and two IVF Laws, and we are here. Up to now, we have seen 578 patients. Besides Maltese patients, we have seen patients from Italy, France, the UK and we even have a pregnancy going on in the United States at the moment.

“As of today, our pregnancy (success) rate is at 76% – double the EU average; almost half of our patients had prior IVF treatment more than once elsewhere. The clinic is already FDA (American Food & Drug Administration) registered and CAP (College of American Pathologists) registered, which is the highest recognition of a lab around the world. There is no technique in IVF that we cannot perform here or that has not been performed by our embryologists successfully.”

Apart from a local consultant, the clinic employs three embryologists, two from Ukraine and one from Spain. Total staff complement is 15.